Man charged with drugged driving in MBTA bus crash in Randolph

RANDOLPH – Alain Dor was walking on a sidewalk along Route 28 when he saw the Ford 500 sedan cross over the double yellow line and collide head-on with an MBTA bus filled with passengers.

The 20-year-old Dor said he then saw the driver of the mangled Ford slumped over onto the steering wheel, his face bloodied.

“It’s crazy,” said Dor, a Randolph resident. “It was disbelief. It was kind of like, ‘How did he get on that side (of the road)?’ I just seen people on the bus yelling. Some people were trying to get off the bus. It’s pretty crazy.”

The driver of the Ford, 30-year-old Stephen Griswold of Franklin, was charged with drugged driving after the daytime crash that injured 18 bus passengers, including the bus driver.

The MBTA transit police on Tuesday would not release the type of drug allegedly used by Griswold. He was scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday in Quincy District Court.

There were 35 people on the bus, 18 of whom were sent to local hospitals with non life-threatening injuries, including neck and back discomfort, officials said.

The 10:40 a.m. crash near 1177 North Main St., also Route 28, snarled traffic and drew dozens of onlookers who captured the scene on their cell phones as two media helicopters swirled overhead. Several officers from the MBTA Transit Police and Randolph police responded to investigate and direct traffic.

A preliminary investigation found Griswold’s 2006 Ford 500, which was traveling south on Route 28, crossed over the double yellow line and crashed into the bus, which had been traveling in the northbound lane, said Kenneth Sprague, deputy chief of the MBTA transit police.

The female bus driver, who was not identified, suffered minor injuries, Sprague said. As part of agency protocol, she will be tested for drugs and alcohol and will be placed on leave for three days until the test results are in, he said.

Both the bus and the Ford 500 sustained severe front-end damage. The impact thrust the Ford 500 onto a sidewalk, where it landed a few steps from the entrance doors to several businesses. It shattered the front left windshield of the bus. Its front right windshield was obliterated.

The crashed occurred in front of a strip mall housing several businesses on North Main Street.

Surveillance video captured by a camera outside Domino’s Pizza shows a bicyclist traveling along Route 28 in the moments before the collision. The video shows the Ford careening into the bus and the two vehicles bouncing off of one another.

Steven Ramsden, who lives across the street, heard the loud impact and ran outside.

“I heard a big boom like a cherry bomb went off. I heard no screeching tires,” Ramsden, 34, said.

Ramsden saw the bus driver leaning over her steering wheel and nearly hanging out of the driver’s side window after the crash.

“She was crying,” said Ramsden, who went to assist her. “We were just saying, ‘Are you alright, m’am? Are you alright?”

Ramsden said Griswold, the driver of the Ford, “seemed fine.”

“He was just like shaking, nervous, really shaky,” Ramsden said while making a shaking gesture.

Some residents said speeding is a problem on Route 28 and they called for increased traffic enforcement.

A roadside police speed detector, stationed across from 1101 North Main St., and not far from the crash scene on Tuesday, bore a sign with a 30 mph speed limit.

After the crash, the detector clocked speeds of up to 47 mph of motorists who were traveling by the detector.

“This is a very high-speed area,” said Paul Dionne, 49, who lives off Route 28. “There’s a lot of accidents on this road.”

Maria Papadopoulos may be reached at mpapa@enterprisenews.com or follow on Twitter @MariaP_ENT.